Motoring has changed quite a bit over the last thirty years or so, and sometimes it’s easy to forget this.
Here are 13 things you simply don’t see regularly with cars of today.
Feu Orange air fresheners
Security stickers and coded radios
Back in the days when stealing a car didn’t involve a laptop each manufacturer would proudly display warnings on their car’s glass. Which brings us nicely onto the next couple of points.
Glass with VIN/registration markings
It seems that the process of etching glass with a vehicles registration number has all but disappeared.
Sun strips
Another glass related change. Remember the not so subtle tinted windscreens that made their way onto so many cars in the 90s or worse still, the motorsport-style strips that would fail MOTs.
Door protectors
Electric aerials
There was always something seriously satisfying about an electric aerial, that was until it got stuck part way up or down.
Spare wheels/tyres
The once obligatory spare is fast becoming a rarity thanks to cost cutting and the prevalence of run-flat tyres and the temporary repair kits.
Conventional locks and keys
Remember the last time you locked your car by turning a barrel by 90 or 180 degrees? Remote central locking and keyless entry mean that most people probably don’t.
Cassette decks/CD Players
Crooklocks
Locking up a car’s steering column did prove one of the most effective security solutions a few decades back. Alarmingly – no pun intended – this sort of device and similar designs are making something of a comeback thanks to the vulnerabilities of certain modern cars.
Cigarette lighters/Ash trays
ICE upgrades
Remember when radios could be swapped out or upgraded with the use of special keys or a carefully bent spoon? It’s something that is becoming less and less in new cars mostly thanks to increased integration at dashboards – that and the general improvements available in O.E in-car entertainment have spelled an end for a once booming industry. Gone too are most of the subwoofers, amps and speaker upgrades.
Mud flaps
Car phones